Google is getting a lot worse because of the Reddit blackouts

Source: The Verge - All Posts

Article note: Reddit was one of the last indexed places not _completely_ overrun with SEO spam, paid fake reviews, and other Min-Max short term gain long term destruction behaviors - that's a big part of why it's so unfortunate that they've lost the plot. Especially since a lot of hobbyist content seems to be moving toward Discord, which is an information black hole.
Image of the Google “G” logo on a blue, black, and purple background.
Illustration: The Verge

Over 8,000 subreddits have gone dark to protest Reddit’s upcoming API changes, and it’s shown me just how much I rely on Reddit to find useful, human-sounding information in my Google search results.

With Google’s generally poor search results nowadays, appending “reddit” has long been the default way I search for almost anything (and no, I’m not ready to get my info from an AI chatbot, either). But given the sheer volume of subreddits that are currently unavailable — including some of the most-subscribed subreddits — clicking through many Reddit links in search results takes me to a message saying the subreddit is private.

And even if you don’t rely on the Reddit trick like I do, Reddit links often show up at the top of search results...

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